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f1 rates. Regional water and sewer rates could be held to a six per cent increase in 1983, regional works chairman Gerry Emm says. Regional cou'cil originally expected the rates to go up as much as 15 per cent due to high maintenance costs and a declining num- ber of ratepayers. But Emm says the budget has been "fine tined" to stay within the federal govern- ment's six and five guidelines. Emm also says the trimming will still allow enough in the budget for local municipalities to continue with water, sewer and road pro- grams. Story on page 3. Terrible time Scott Fennell, MP for Ontario Riding, says the federal government's plan to add 10 new Ontario seats to the legislature comes at a "terrible time". The government announced Monday it will create 28 new seats across Canada as a result of new population figures from the 1981 federal census. But Fenneil says it will just make govern- ment even bigger, and cost taxpayers as much as $2.8 million annually. A new riding in Durham region will mean local voters will send three members to the federal legislature in the next election if the bill is passed in the spring of 1983. See page 3. Teachers meet Durham elementary school teachers have reached a tentative agreement in their con- tract dispute with the Board of Education. The teachers won't release details of the settlement until the latest board offer is rati- fied. Meetings will be held today to consider the board's proposal. The. teachers have been without a contract since August of 1982. The contentious issues in the negotiations have been salary, staffing and benefits. See page 6. Big Brothers It's Big Brother Week in Whitby, and the organization hopes to find Big Brothers for more than 50 fatherless boys in the area. Big Brothers will hold a reception tonight at the Oshawa Holiday Inn for all men who are interested in becoming Big Brothers. Even if you can't make it tonight, Big Brothers would be happy to hear from you any time. Story and picture on page 7. Green light Those irritating traffic jams in downtown Whitby could be a thing of the past. This week, lights at main intersections on Brock and Dundas Streets will go on a computer timing system. The theory is, once you get a green light at one intersection, you can go green ail through town. Whitby is the first of several areas in the region to go on the computer system. Story on page 12. Vol. 12 No. 46 we w Isolation plus insanity equal murder Who is that masked man (or woman)? Audiences at the Marigold's latest production, Ill Be Back Before Midnight, don't find outun- til the final curtain. In the meantime, the Sherlock Holmes in the crowd might guess who is behind the mask. Story on page 14. - Photo courtesy of the Marigold Dinner Playhouse Residents will be shipped away: OPSEU Most residents of the Durham Centre for the Developmentally Han- dicapped will end up in large, impersonal insti- tutions when the centre is closed in 1987, the Ont- ario Public Service Em- ployees Union said last week. OPSEU was respon- ding to the announce- ment by Community and Social Services Minister Frank Drea that¢six medium-sized institutions will be closed over five years, and community group homes-will be establish- ed. "Drea is talking orIt nf both sides .of his mouth," OPSEU presi- dent Sean O'Flynn said at a press conference at Durham Centre last week. "On the one hand he is saying we want to de- institutionalize, and on the other he is creating a situation that will send more clients to places like Orillia and Smith Fals." Under Drea's five- year plan, mentally re- tarded persons at the six institutions with either be placed in community group homes or bë returned to large. insti- tutions. "The cream of the only about 15 are pre- pared to live in group homes. As a result, most will be uprooted and 'sent to large insti- OPSEU President Sean O'Flynn crop has already gone out into the commu- nity," says Ken Thi- beau, président of OP- SEU's Local 332. "It means most of our peo- ple will be sent to the larger institutions." Thibeau ,said of the' centre's 150 patients, tutions far away from their family and friends. O'Flynn says Durham Centre was build to pro- vide an alternative to large centres, and now the government is send- ing clients back to those very institutions. OPSEU is mounting a campaign which en- courages the public to put pressure on the government to establish the group homes before the institutions are closed. "If he's going to set up care in the community, he should set up that care first and then em- pty the institutions," O'Flynn said. He called the plan a "smoke screen" that 'merely hides the Davis government's cost- cutting measures. "They have no intén- tion of providing ser- vices in the commu- nity," O'Flynn said. "There is no evidence so far that the group homes are going to be set up, and this goverri- ment has a very poor record of de-institution- alizing." - O'Flynr pointed to the closing of Lakeshore Psychiatric hospital in Toronto in 1979. "No community care was provided and the place turned into a ghetto," said O'Flynn. He said OPSEU wants an assurance that the community care provid- ed in group homes wil Ibe as good or better than that provided by institutions such as Durham Centre. "Some of our patients are between 50 and 70 years old," Thibeau said. "If they have to move to Orillia, they won't survive." He said moving these clients amounts to the same thing as taking away their home and their parents, because the staff of Durham Centre are just like family to the clients. Besides the effect on the mentally retarded, the closing of Durham Centre will put 150 people out Of work, and take more than $4 mil- lion out of Whitby's economy, Thibeau said. "We are not opposed to the philosophy of inte- gration," .said O'Flynn. "We just want them to assure us community care will be provided," -O'Flynn said. "We think it's a smoke screen and we want them to prove us wrong." Wednesday, November 24,-1982 24 Pages -100, ............... 17